This Is The New MSNBC: Joe Scarborough Uses Edited Videos To Attack Elizabeth Warren

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This is what the new MSNBC looks like in action. Joe Scarborough was allowed to use deceptively edited videos to attack Sen. Elizabeth Warren during a segment on Morning Joe.

Video:

Transcript via Media Matters:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: More videos are coming out and they will be worse. And for Elizabeth Warren to try to conflate the right of a woman to choose with the horrors and the callousness and the grotesqueness of what was discussed over lunch is really unfortunate. You know, Elizabeth Warren talking about the 1950s and the 1890s, she can talk about it all she wants. There is a great quote. I don’t know the source but it goes something like ‘just because we are not shocked by what shocked our grandmothers does not mean we are more advanced than our grandmothers.’

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Okay. But with, you know, just to be clear here, she’s talking about the issue of defunding Planned Parenthood and its services. She’s not talking about what’s going on in these videos.

[…]

SCARBOROUGH: Nice try Elizabeth, nice try Elizabeth Warren. Nice try. It’s only going to get worse for Planned Parenthood. I agree with Hillary Clinton. There are troubling things on those tapes. And everybody needs to open their eyes and see that instead of reflexively talking about right-wing attacks on a woman’s right to choose. Please stop insulting our intelligence, Elizabeth Warren. Stop.

Scarborough was reacting to Sen. Warren calling out Republicans for their 1950s style behavior in trying to defund Planned Parenthood. Warren said, “Do you have any idea what year it is? Did you fall down, hit your head, and think you woke up in the 1950’s or the 1890’s? Should we call for a doctor? Because I simply cannot believe that in the year 2015, the United States Senate would be spending its time trying to defund women’s health care centers. You know, on second thought, maybe I shouldn’t be that surprised. The Republicans have had a plan for years to strip away women’s rights to make choices over our own bodies. Just look at the recent facts.”

A real insult to our collective intelligence was Joe Scarborough trying to pass off edited videos as facts. An insult is the fact that MSNBC has dumped much of their liberal talent while elevating a Republican hack like Scarborough.

MSNBC executives claimed that they moved away from their liberal programming to focus more on news and breaking news. If this is the case, why is Joe Scarborough still on the air? Scarborough has no background in news and journalism. He is a former House Republican backbencher who gets paid to deliver his opinions on NBC and MSNBC. If MSNBC’s standards for dumping Ed Schultz were applied to Joe Scarborough, he would be out of a job.

Welcome to the “new” MSNBC. Joe Scarborough can smear a sitting United States Senator with no consequences, but there is no room for liberals who discuss the plight of working Americans. MSNBC has gone from leaning forward to falling backward into oblivion.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association